SAUGUS — The Breakheart Reservation partially reopened to visitors Friday, after firefighters worked to extinguish a number of brush fires at the park that burned at least 79 acres — more than 10 percent — of its land since breaking out on Aug. 16.
The state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation has made the decision to keep some areas of the reservations off limits to visitors out of an abundance of caution. Those areas include Ash Path and Ridge Trail, which will remain closed to the public as state agencies and firefighters continue to conduct ongoing tree removal and cleanup efforts associated with the recent fires.
“It’s really important for their own safety that they follow the guidance and the restrictions of the opening,” DCR Chief Fire Warden Dave Celino said. “We don’t even let firefighters in there without hard hats and there’s a reason for that. It’s a real safety issue.”
DCR staff will be on-site to direct visitors to the reopened areas of the reservation. Video message boards, cones, and signage will also be present at the park, clearly identifying areas that are open to the public. The department issued a recreational advisory yesterday asking visitors to obey DCR staff’s instructions and signs for their own safety.
DCR spokesperson Ilyse Wolberg said the department’s main concern over people visiting closed areas is that a tree, damaged in the fires, could fall before workers have a chance to remove it. She added that since some of the fires at the reservation were ground fires, there is also a potential for hotspots underground in areas of the park that remain closed to the public.
State officials’ temporary ban on all open flame and charcoal fires also remains in effect across the Massachusetts State Park System in an effort to prevent wildfires intensified by drought conditions.
Saugus Fire Capt. Tom Kaminski previously told The Item that officials were investigating the Breakheart brush fires as “suspicious,” in part because it was difficult to imagine the blazes starting any other way with no recent lightning and no power lines in the park.
Rachel Barber can be reached at [email protected].
